Citing an alleged increase in the use
of improvised explosive devices on U.S. soil, including last month's
Colorado massacre, the federal government and members of Congress are
pushing for Posse Comitatus to be curtailed and for the U.S. military
to work closer with law enforcement in fighting "homegrown terrorists".

Warning about the "growing threat"
of IEDs across the United States, the Pentagon is pushing for Congress
to relax Posse Comitatus, which substantially limit the powers of the
federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under
precise and extreme circumstances.

Section
1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act states, “Whoever, except in
cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution
or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force
as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined
under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Citing the need for the military to
aid police in dealing with IEDs, the Pentagon is 'complaining' about
"legal restrictions on the activities of U.S. armed forces"
within the United States, labeling Posse Comitatus an 'impediment' that
"some members of Congress are pressing to change," reports
the Houston Chronicle.

House Committee on Homeland Security
leaders Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., Daniel Lungren, R-Calif., and Michael
McCaul, R-Austin are leading an effort to amend Posse Comitatus in order
to allow Pentagon specialists to coordinate with local law enforcement
bodies.

"The domestic IED threat from both
homegrown terrorists and global threat networks is real and presents
a significant security challenge for the United States and our international
partners," Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero told Congress in classified
testimony.

"Among the recent examples of IED
use cited by authorities is that of the Colorado theater shooter, who
allegedly rigged his apartment with the device," reports
UPI.

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As
we saw in a recent study funded by the Department of Homeland Security,
these "homegrown terrorists" the military is being brought
in to counter are primarily American citizens, not Islamic extremists.
According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, Americans who
are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent
of individual liberty” are to be characterized as “extreme
right-wing” terrorists.

Fears that martial law may be imposed
to deal with widespread civil unrest in the United States have never
been stronger.

As
Infowars recently reported, a newly leaked US Army Military Police
training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines
how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate
firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.

In December 2008, the Washington
Post reported on plans to station 20,000 more U.S. troops inside
America for purposes of “domestic security” from September
2011 onwards, an expansion of Northcom’s militarization of the
country in preparation for potential civil unrest following a total
economic collapse or a mass terror attack.

A report produced that same year by the U.S.
Army War College’s Strategic Institute warned that the United
States may experience massive civil unrest in the wake of a series of
crises which it termed “strategic shock.”

“Widespread civil violence inside the United
States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities
in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,”
stated
the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, adding that
the military may be needed to quell “purposeful domestic resistance”.

In
a recent Council on Foreign relations piece, Chief of Staff of the
U.S. Army, General Raymond T. Odierno advocated for the U.S. Army to
be “transitioned” into a more “flexible force”
by deploying in situations normally reserved for domestic law enforcement
officials.